Duplex Development In The Works At Chaffee Crossing

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FORT SMITH (KFSM)—A duplex development is in the works at Chaffee Crossing. The project developer is hoping it will attract young professionals to the area near the new medical college.

The map shows 18 acres of land where 54 duplexes will be located on the north side of Veterans Avenue, between Roberts Boulevard and Frontier Road. The development had been proposed by local developer Rod Coleman about a year ago.

“They're nestled up right next to the medical school," Ivy Owen, Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority executive director, said. “There's a reason for that. He wanted to try to capture some of those young professionals.”

Brent Cherry has a space inside the Cre8ive Arts Network nearby, and is new to the area.

“It's great," Cherry said. “As a student myself, housing is important especially when you have to resort to alternative means in this day and age.”

Owen says duplexes are in high demand, especially for those just getting started in the workforce.

“They'd rather do duplexes than apartments, but don't want to do a single family home yet so it's kind of an intermediary stop for them,” he said.

Construction on the Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine is set to be done by April, but Owen said classes won't officially begin until the fall semester of 2017.

“The medical school likes it because they need them, and it works out well for [the developer], so that's what these are all about,” Owen said.

Owen anticipates construction on the duplexes will begin in about a year.